After a construction time of 20 months, operation of the Stuttgart television tower was started on 5 February 1956. With its impressive height of 217 m, it is the original model for the television towers from around the world.

Originally what was then the Süddeutsche Rundfunk wanted to set up its antennas for the transmission of television and VHF radio broadcasts at a height of 200 meters on an iron grid pole which was secured by steel wire rope, as it was common at the time.

For this monstrous project, the Stuttgart engineer Prof. Fritz Leonhardt, who had become famous as a builder of bridges and a structural engineer, was called in. It was his idea to have an elegant concrete needle grow out of the forests of Degerloch instead of an ugly grated pole and to provide this with a tower construction with a viewing platform which could be used for tourists and gastronomy.